The USOPC selected Salt Lake City as its preferred candidate to host a future Winter Olympics and Paralympics back in 2018.

A definitive decision on whether a 2030 or 2034 Games will be pursued has yet to be made.

USOPC chair Susanne Lyons said following a Board meeting that the Games had not been discussed during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics with the IOC.

Discussions are now expected to step up over the coming months.

Lyons revealed an IOC delegation are due to visit Utah in late April for a technical visit, where prospective plans for the Games will be discussed.

Lyons and USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland are then expected to be part of a delegation which will visit the IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne.

The visit is expected to take place in June.

A virtual meeting between the Salt Lake City-Utah Bid Committee and the IOC was held in December after a planned visit to Lausanne was shelved due to COVID-19 regulations.

A visit to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was also unable to take place, with the IOC electing to cancel the Olympic Observer Programme for bidding host nations at the Games.

Lyons said the USOPC does not expect the IOC to award the 2030 Winter Olympics until the organisation’s Session next year.

The USOPC chair suggested it is possible that the candidates to host the Games could become clear by the end of this year.

The IOC Session next year is due to take place at Mumbai in India in either May or June.

The IOC’s Future Host Commission is in charge of the process, with the group tasked with identifying and proposing its preferred candidate to the IOC Executive Board.

The IOC Executive Board can then recommend the bid be put forward to a vote at an IOC Session.

Brisbane for the 2032 Summer Games became the first city to be awarded hosting rights in this way.

Lyons said discussions were ongoing with the USOPC’s partners over the potential commercial impact or opportunities a 2030 Winter Olympics could have with the US due to host the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

This assessment is expected to be completed by the Autumn.

Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, which involved a bidding process later marred by a corruption scandal.

The Salt Lake City-Utah Bid Committee projected in December that a 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games would require a budget of $2.2 billion (£1.6 billion/€1.9 billion).

The American bid is one of several possible contenders for the 2030 Games.

Sapporo in Japan published a draft Games plan earlier this month as the city seeks to step up its bid to host the event for the second time.

Sapporo previously hosted the Games in 1972.

The Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee have thrown their weight behind an indigenous-led bid by Vancouver, the 2010 hosts.

A Pyrenees-Barcelona bid is also planned, with the potential involvement of Bosnia and Herzegovina for sliding events.

The potential field could be impacted by referendums, with a vote expected in the summer on the proposed Pyrenees-Barcelona bid.

A decision could be taken tomorrow by the Vancouver City Council on whether a plebiscite could take place this October, alongside elections.